Fewer and fewer pig farmers in Austria

Structural change continues

The structural change in Austrian pig production has continued: According to official information, significantly fewer pig farmers were counted in 2003, and the number of pigs housed continued to decline compared to the previous year. However, the rate of reduction has slowed down, and in some areas there has even been an increase in inventories.

In the livestock census of December 1, 2003, around 3,25 million pigs were counted in Austria, which was 1,8 percent fewer than a year earlier. However, the decrease is primarily due to declining numbers of piglets under 20 kilograms and young pigs between 20 and 50 kilograms in weight, which fell short of the previous year's values ​​by almost four and a good eight percent respectively. A good eight percent less was also determined in breeding sows and breeding boars. Pig production is therefore likely to decline in the future.

The decline in the number of piglets and breeding animals was offset by a strong increase in fattening pigs, which, however, mainly related to animals in the weight class between 80 and 100 kilograms and over. These pigs, which are almost ready for slaughter, should have been slaughtered long ago. In the weight range between 50 and 80 kilograms, on the other hand, there was a decline in stocks of a good one percent.

Opportunities for German pig farmers

The lower supply of young animals led to a limited supply of fattening pigs from Austrian production in the spring of this year. In the first three months of this year, Germany delivered significantly more fattening pigs to Austria than in the same period of the previous year, thus making use of the supply gap. During this time, the prices paid by Austrian slaughterhouses rose by 32 cents to 1,37 euros per kilogram of slaughtered weight. For this reason, it was attractive for many German pig farmers to sell their pigs to the neighboring country.

Source: Bonn [ZmP]